tuning menu - Ken Gilbert

SWEET CHILD 'O MINE
Thus tuning the R35 was thought
to be an unwavering challenge and the
entire car would be an absolute black
box, which turned out to be true - to a
point. We heard nightmares about the
car going nuts after attempting to tune
the ECU, cars going off course because
they installed an aftermarket suspension
system and cars coming out of a tuning
shop actually going slower than stock.
But there are always exceptions in
this world. There is never a code that
cannot be deciphered, a map that cannot
be read and a box that cannot be opened.
In this case, our Doctor Robert Langdon
is Michizo Niikura of Mine’s.
Niikura has been tinkering with
Nissan’s for more than 20 years and he
has become one of the top respected
GT-R tuners in the world. The Yokusuka
tuner’s signature pearl white R32 to R34
GT-Rs are all over YouTube (go ahead,
search for them now) and have become
legendary everywhere around the world.
Mine’s was one of the first tuners to
get their hands on the R35 when the car
first came out in late 2007. Surprisingly
they already had parts and a demo car
displayed a month later at the 2008
Tokyo Auto Salon in January. When they
were done playing with it in Japan, they
sent the car over to GTChannel.com in
Los Angeles to shoot videos stateside.
Going back to the GT-R being a car
not suited for tuning, Niikura and his
team were well aware of this concept
behind the car. But it didn’t faze him
because Mine’s own concept has
always been to enhance the natural
characteristics of the stock car and not
just adding crazy features. So if Nissan
was skeptical about aftermarket tuning,
why not just concentrate on improving
what Nissan had already done?
For example: if you change the shape
of the front fender and rear wing it may
slow down the vehicle. Mine’s choice was
to leave the shape as it was. However,
34 SUPER STREET FEBRUARY 2010
Mine’s changed the material of the front
lip spoiler, front grill, front canards and
rear wing to carbon-fiber to make it
lighter. The intake duct covers and the
roof antenna for the GPS are also carbon.
As you can see intricate details go into
the goal of making a lighter and
faster car.
Mine’s carefully chose what they
wanted to do to improve the overall
performance of the GT-R. The ECU was
something Mine’s specializes in and once
they cracked it, they took full advantage
of it by increasing performance and
improving engine response. The engine
itself is stock but covered underneath a
black carbon engine cover. The air filter
is Mine’s VX Air filter. A new lightweight
titanium exhaust system was added
to compliment the increased outage
from the new settings from the ECU.
Now there’s 550bhp at 6400rpm from
480bhp at 6400rpm stock.
Despite being blistering fast, the
Mine’s GT-R is very drivable and gentle
on the streets. That’s until you step on
the gas. It rockets out like a rollercoaster,
recording only 3.0 seconds to get up to
60mph and puts most cars to shame on
the 1/4 mile marking 11.1 seconds.
Mine’s coilovers are manufactured
by Eibach to improve the handling and
minimize understeer. The lower stance
with the combination of the Bridgestone
Potenzas makes turning much quicker.
The Mine’s GT-R with everything
included costs about $150K. But since
the US got the short end of the stick
once again and doesn’t have the über
GT-R - the 2 seat GT-R SpecV from
Nissan dealers here - the Mine’s GT-R is
probably the closest thing you can get.
www.storemags.com & www.fantamag.com